Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.

Now this cult classic of gonzo journalism is a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.

Review:

"[A] kind of mad, corrosive prose poetry that picks up where Norman Mailer's An American Dream left off and explores what Tom Wolfe left out." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

Review:

"Among journalists I have but one hero, and that is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. I honor him because he reports the simple facts, in plain language, of what he sees around him. His style is mistaken for fantastic, drug-crazed exaggeration, but that was to be expected. As always in this country, they only laugh at you when you tell the truth. Dr. Thompson's problem is how to equal, without merely imitating, the scholarly precision of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is really much more than a journalist. Not a journalist at all, but one who sees — a seer." Edward Abbey

About the Author

Hunter S. Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. He was known for his flamboyant writing style, most notably deployed in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which blurred the distinctions between writer and subject, fiction and nonfiction.

The best source on Thompson's writing style and personality is Thompson himself. His books include Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (1966), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972), Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973); The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (1979); The Curse of Lono (1983); Generation of Swine, Gonzo Papers Vol. 2: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the 80's (1988); and Songs of the Doomed (1990).

nrlymrtl, July 30, 2012 (view all comments by nrlymrtl)
The book started off interesting, with a catalog of drugs in a car with two guys heading from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Thompson is hallucinating about bats, very large bats. Then they pick up a hitchhiker and freak him out with their paranoid talk �" or were they talking out loud? Once at Las Vegas they go from hotel to hotel abusing people, staff, customers, inanimate objects, themselves. It goes on in this vein the entire book.

In honesty, I never got into the drug scene, though I did more than my fair share of alcohol in college. Some of the things in this book, I understood (such as the lack of interest in things and people going on around you except in relation to your addiction of choice) while other things I just did not get (like the range and depth of mental alteration brought on by the drugs). With that said, I did not particularly enjoy this book though I do believe it captured the essence of drug addiction taken to the edge. In particular, there is reference to the lawyer picking up a young woman, taking her back to his room, inviting her to enjoy a mix of drugs and alcohol, and then using her for sex. While the scene itself is never covered in depth, the reaction by the lawyer and Thompson �" dodging any kind of responsibility for harming another being, on purpose, for pleasure alone �" pretty much got the point across. The only thing you care about are the drugs/personal pleasure �" and it is the same for anyone else hanging out with you.

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evybee93, January 3, 2012 (view all comments by evybee93)
Hunter S. Thompson's memoir Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, pivots around Thompson, a magazine writer, and his attorney on a quest to Las Vegas to cover a massive motorcycle race as well as a Law Enforcement convention. He is given $300 intended for travel costs, however he spends it on a suitcase full of body and mind altering drugs. Through Thompson’s unique writing style, adventures and crazy quests are beautifully illustrated, and the reader is immediately sucked into his very bizarre experiences.
Threading through a series of wild experiences on this journey comes Thompson’s insights on America in the 1970’s, the Vietnam War in progress, the peak and soon after, decline of war counter-culture, and the reign of Nixon. All three of these events, among others of this decade, are highlighted throughout the memoir, as sort of an overriding plot line. Along with this plot comes Thompson’s quest for the American dream, which he seems to think is within the mayhem of Las Vegas. Though sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate Thompson’s reality from his drug-induced visions, the defining themes of Las Vegas such as superficiality and magnificence, hope and despair, etcetera, are prevalent throughout the book. As for Thompson’s hallucinations, well they just give the reader a bit of a twist.
Personally, my absolute favorite aspect of this book was having the ability to see through Thompson’s perspective, giving me a whole new look at the nation in a crossroad. Judging by the cover, this book looks to be just another 1960’s psychedelic rebellion novel, but the emphasized political aspect go far beyond expectations, making it a must read for any American history enthusiast who loves a good twist.

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"Review"
by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times,
"[A] kind of mad, corrosive prose poetry that picks up where Norman Mailer's An American Dream left off and explores what Tom Wolfe left out."

"Review"
by Edward Abbey,
"Among journalists I have but one hero, and that is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. I honor him because he reports the simple facts, in plain language, of what he sees around him. His style is mistaken for fantastic, drug-crazed exaggeration, but that was to be expected. As always in this country, they only laugh at you when you tell the truth. Dr. Thompson's problem is how to equal, without merely imitating, the scholarly precision of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is really much more than a journalist. Not a journalist at all, but one who sees — a seer."

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